


The Daily Grind

by madsthenerdygirl



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Because Every Ship Must Have One, Did I Mention It's All a Mess?, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Flynn Flirts by Getting Coffee Orders Wrong, Gratuitous Mention of Coffee Drinks, It's the Fandom Law, Lucy Flirts by Finding Excuses to Get the Boys to Touch Her Inappropriately, Mess Everywhere, Multi, Other Than Mutual Pining, Peanut Gallery Antics, Rufus is One Hundred Percent Done, The Requisite Coffeeshop AU, There's Really No Plot to This, Trash ot3, Wyatt Flirts by Being a Cranky Disaster, Wyatt Logan's Bisexuality Crisis, nothing but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-06 03:02:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16823812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madsthenerdygirl/pseuds/madsthenerdygirl
Summary: Welcome to the Lifeboat, in which the Lucy, the Wyatt, and the Flynn engage in their slow as fuck mating rituals through coffee.





	1. Chapter 1

“Good morning, Flynn!” Jiya said cheerfully from behind the counter.

Flynn, who had just hiked through the snow to get to work at this godforsaken early hour of the day on a Saturday, did not see it as such a good morning. “Did you shoot some espresso straight into your veins?”

“No, but we did get a new barista to help with the weekend rush.”

“Oh, joy,” Flynn said sarcastically, taking off his jacket and hat. Probably another godforsaken freshman who took the job to flirt with all the students who came into The Lifeboat coffee shop and not focused on actually working.

The door burst open and a tiny figure wrapped in a massive coat came in, dragging a slightly taller figure behind them. The taller figure shook out their dark blonde hair, revealing themselves to be a younger girl—definitely a freshman. “Whoo, freezing!”

Flynn glared at her. “You’re late.”

“I’m not anything,” the girl replied, smirking at him. “She’s your new barista. I’m just the little sister along for the ride.”

The tiny figure took off her hat and scarf and coat and…

Oh.

Flynn’s stomach dropped out.

The stunning brunette smiled tentatively up at him, sticking out her hand. “Hi, I’m Lucy, Lucy Preston. I’ve seen you working here before, you’re Flynn, right?”

Flynn tried not to choke on his own tongue. “Yes,” he blurted out, shaking her hand. “That’s me.”

“I’m sorry you’ll be training me,” Lucy went on, hanging up her winter clothes. “I’m a junior but I’ve never had to get a job like this until now so I’m going to be hopelessly lost.”

“No, no, don’t worry about it,” Flynn said. “I’m sure we’ll be quite the team someday.”

Jiya’s head shot up from where she was doing inventory. Everyone knew how much Flynn absolutely hated training the newbies. He’d made quite a few of the new employees cry.

If you asked Flynn, it was a good thing. The current team was Rufus, Jiya, himself, Jess—who actually was rather good but had lately been in a funk after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, known by Flynn only as ‘that idiot’—and occasionally Dave ‘Bam Bam’ on the weekends. Everyone knew their stuff, everyone worked well together, why change it up?

But now Lucy Preston was gazing up at him with her big sweet brown eyes and sharp, flushed cheekbones and thick dark hair, and he was thinking that this whole hiring-more-people idea Mason had was an excellent one.

“So,” Lucy said, grabbing an apron and putting it on, “where do you want me?”

 _On the counter_ , Flynn’s stupid traitorous brain offered. “Um, ah, just over here.”

Lucy followed him behind the counter, a small smile on her face.

“So,” Flynn said, clearing his throat. “let me show you how the machine works.”

He moved Lucy to stand in front of him, his hands at her waist before he realized what he was doing, and he jumped back. “ _Sranje_ , I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Lucy replied, her cheeks still pink.

“It’s just—ah, it’s easier if…” He reached around her, mimicking her hands to show her how to do things. “That’s how I learned, anyway.”

Jiya made a choking noise and then hurried into the back. A moment later, what sounded like a hyena hacking on a roll sounded from the back room.

“Is everything okay with her?” Lucy asked.

“Um, yes, she’s fine,” Flynn said, even as his phone buzzed in his pocket.

He finished showing Lucy how to work the machine, and then stepped back to check his phone while she practiced making a cappuccino.

The text was from Jiya.

_You are never living this down._

Well, fuck.

* * *

“No,” Wyatt said firmly as Rufus and Jess each tugged on a hand.

“Yes,” they replied together, continuing to drag him across campus.

“I don’t need to go to that stupid hipster place, what’s wrong with Starbucks?”

“First of all,” Jess said, “we work there. Maybe if you’d visited it more often, we’d still be dating. Second of all, do Rufus and I look like hipster types?”

“No, you look like a nerd type and a redneck type.”

“Fuck you,” Rufus said.

Between the two of them (Jess was supernaturally strong), they managed to drag Wyatt into The Lifeboat.

There was already a line. How this place was so popular, Wyatt didn’t know. He’d just get his usual black coffee anyway.

“Flynn!” Jess said, waving and hooking her arm around Wyatt and trapping him as they got to the front of the line. “This is the idiot.”

Flynn was…

Hnngh.

Wyatt hadn’t—he—the thing was, he wasn’t—but there were just some men that really, you know, defied orientation, didn’t they? This Flynn was clearly just, you know, one of those men.

One of those very… very… unfairly handsome men with a hint of stubble and dark hair and snapping dark eyes and that dangerous bad boy kind of look…

Jess elbowed him. “Wyatt. Your order.”

“What? Oh.”

Flynn rolled his eyes. “Yes, sometime today, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Wyatt felt his cheeks heating up and he glared at him. “Jesus, man, aren’t you paid to be nice to people?”

“I’m paid to take your order,” Flynn snapped. “So what is it?”

“One black coffee,” Wyatt shot back.

Flynn took a small step back, then dragged his eyes up Wyatt’s body. Wyatt could feel himself heating up, his spine tingling and his gut tightening. The corner of Flynn’s mouth curled upwards in a horribly knowing way and Wyatt wanted to sink into the floor.

“Just one black coffee,” Flynn drawled. “Sure.”

Jess paid, and Flynn made some inside joke with her that she laughed at, and Wyatt felt an odd surge of jealousy—not over Jess, but over Flynn.

What the hell? The guy was annoying as shit. And Wyatt wasn’t—y’know. He liked women.

Women like…

…oh wow.

Like that one.

The barista working the espresso machine grimaced, tucking a lock of dark hair behind her ear and wrinkling her nose. “Flynn?” she asked, “what’s this mean?”

“Oh, here.” Flynn took the receipt from her and bent down so he could murmur in her ear. The brunette giggled, nodding.

Well great. Two absolutely stunning people and they were dating each other. Of course.

“What is up with that guy?” Wyatt hissed as Jess moved him out of the line for Rufus to order.

“Flynn’s always like that,” Jess said. “He hates people. And I might have ranted to him about you for two months.”

“Thanks, Jess, you made the guy hate me.”

“Jess?” the brunette called. “One mint hot chocolate?”

“Thanks, hon.” Jess grinned. “You’re the new girl, huh?”

“Yes, I’m Lucy.”

“Jess, I’m sure we’ll be working together.” She shook Lucy’s hand. “This is my ex, Wyatt. Don’t worry, he’s stupid but harmless.”

“Thanks, Jess.”

“Oh, Wyatt?” Lucy turned her sharp eyes onto him, smiling. “Here’s your caramel macchiato.”

Wyatt stared. “…I ordered a black coffee.”

Lucy looked upset. “Oh, did you? But Flynn said…” She looked back at Flynn, waving the coffee.

Flynn looked at her, then looked deadpan over at Wyatt.

“I’ll take care of it,” Wyatt said, taking the cup and marching over to Flynn, shouldering Rufus aside so he could slam the cup down in front of him. “Dude? What the hell?”

“You are not a black coffee guy,” Flynn replied.

“I’m not a caramel whatever the fuck this is guy either.”

“You don’t know until you try it,” Flynn said with a smirk.

Wyatt kind of wanted to hit that smirk off his face.

Then he realized that Rufus, Jess, and the beautiful Lucy were all watching him eagerly.

He snatched up the cup and took a long sip.

…fuck it was delicious.

“It sucks,” he said.

“Well then,” Flynn said, a knowing look in his eye, “guess you’ll just have to come back and we’ll try something else.”

Wyatt moved to step back, and Flynn grabbed his hand before he could, wrapping it around Wyatt’s hand where it gripped the cup. “Hey, if you don’t want it, I sure could use some caffeine,” Flynn said.

Fuck Flynn’s hands were large. And warm. And made Wyatt’s stomach melt just a little.

Fuuuuck.

“No, it’s mine now, I paid for it.”

“Technically I paid for it,” Jess grumbled.

Flynn let go. “Suit yourself.” He shrugged, but was clearly biting back a smug smile.

Wyatt drank that entire coffee in about five minutes flat.

…god dammit.

* * *

“I promise he’s not normally this cranky,” Jess promised Lucy, leaning against the counter.

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Lucy said quickly. She was rapidly picking up on the fact that so far she and Jiya were the only two people safe from Flynn’s misanthropic wrath. “Flynn’s just playing a joke.”

“Wyatt really does hate black coffee,” Jess said conspiratorially, lowering her voice. “It’s just that he’s stubborn. I’m trying to work on the toxic masculinity bit.”

Lucy laughed, glancing over at Wyatt. He really was cute, handsome in that soft pretty kind of way. She could see why Jess had dated the guy.

He glanced over at her and met her gaze… then winked and raised his cup at her before going back to talking with Rufus.

Lucy’s stomach flipped.

All right, so full disclosure… Flynn had been what had convinced her to get a job here instead of at the library. She’d seen him a few times because Amy was a freshman and was convinced that the only way she was going to make it through the year was replacing her blood with coffee, and honestly, Lucy wanted to climb him like a tree and then ride him like she was on the Pony Express.

She hadn’t expected Flynn to be so soft with her, or his biting humor with everyone else, and she definitely hadn’t expected that crazy interaction between him and Wyatt. That whole thing was actually pretty damn cute to watch. Wyatt himself was cute to watch.

…okay so she wanted to fuck them both, what of it? She’d come in here with one crush and was ending her shift with two. Nothing wrong with a little harmless crush, was there, right?

Right.

* * *

Amy practically cackled, watching with Jiya as Lucy ‘forgot’ how to use the espresso machine for the third time that day so that Flynn had to wrap his arms around her from behind and show her.

“I swear she’s never done this,” she said. “This is amazing.”

“I’m going to kill exactly three people in this shop,” Rufus said, storming over and kissing Jiya hello. Behind him followed a blonde, the friend of the Wyatt that Flynn and Lucy were both tripping over themselves to keep needling about his coffee order.

The blonde smiled at Amy, coming to stand next to her. “Hello, and who might you be?”

“Amy.”

“Jess.” Jess held out her hand for Amy to shake. “I’m charmed.”

They shook hands, but Jess then reached up and tucked some hair behind Amy’s ear. “Can’t have anything getting in the way of those pretty eyes, can we?”

Amy just about turned into a puddle of goo. “N-no ma’am,” she stammered out, feeling like an idiot.

“Ma’am?” Jess laughed. “Oh, you’re precious. Tell me, Amy,” she said, leaning in and drawing out Amy’s name, “you single?”

“Yes?”

“Oh, excellent.” Jess wound a strand of Amy’s hair around her finger.

Amy was pretty sure she’d died and had somehow wound up in Heaven despite all her behavior indicating the contrary.

“So tell me, Amy, I hope this isn’t too bold but, what are you doing Friday night?”

“Whatever you want,” Amy blurted out.

Jess smiled. “Perfect,” she purred.

“Okay,” Rufus said, “I now want to kill exactly five people in this shop.”


	2. Chapter 2

Wyatt strode into the coffee shop, shaking the snow off his boots. “Incoming,” Rufus intoned.

Flynn literally dove for the cash register, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Good morning, Wyatt, I see you got up on the bitchy side of the bed.”

“And a fuck you to you too, Flynn. Gonna actually give me what I ordered this time?”

“That depends, are you going to order something you actually like or are you still pretending to drink that manly, manly sludge?”

“I _like_ my black coffee, dammit!”

“And I’m Chinese,” Flynn replied, deadpan.

Behind the espresso machine, Lucy was valiantly trying to stifle her giggles. Flynn gave her a besotted smile until Wyatt snapped his fingers in Flynn’s face to get his attention. “One. Black. Coffee.”

“Uh-huh.” Flynn rang up the black coffee and then pulled out the ticket and wrote—Rufus had to squint a little to read it— _peppermint mocha_.

Lucy dutifully made a peppermint mocha. Wyatt, who apparently somehow considered Lucy an innocent bystander in all of this rather than a perfectly willing accomplice, sidled up to her. “How’re you doing this morning? Did the history paper go well?”

“Ugh, never talk to me about 18th century France again,” Lucy informed him, but she was smiling. “How are you holding up?”

“Oh, y’know, ready to kill myself but hey, that’s the junior mood, right?”

“Just wait until you’re a senior,” Denise, the manager, informed them all darkly as she walked past carrying some bags of coffee. “And Wyatt, stop distracting my employees.”

“I’m only distracting Lucy!” Wyatt protested as Flynn went pink and pretended to be counting the register.

“Yeah, Wyatt, stop distracting Lucy,” Flynn said.

Wyatt pointed a finger at him accusingly. “You can just—just—”

“One peppermint mocha,” Lucy said sweetly, handing it to Wyatt.

Wyatt stared at it, then looked at Flynn. “I’m gonna kill you.”

“I’d love to see you try. Honestly. Give it your best shot. I’ll let you swing first.”

“You’ll _let_ me? Buddy I can move faster than you.”

“Ah, I’m sure you move too fast in a lot of ways.” Flynn smirked. “Pity when one is lacking in stamina, yes?”

Wyatt spluttered, flushing red. “You’re one to talk, cranky pants, at least I get that far with someone.”

“With your insane amount of charm and wit, I’m sure.”

“I have plenty of charm and wit!”

“Oh so you’re just choosing not to show it around us?”

“Ah, yes,” Rufus said, making notes. “The classic Flynn-Wyatt mating dance. You can see how both initially respond with aggression, a tactic used by both the Wyatt and the Flynn that allows them to surmise if their potential mate can withstand such harsh banter and will be a strong and virile match.”

Jess smacked him with a box of to go cups.

“What are you doing?” Amy asked, peering over Rufus’s shoulder. She honestly should just get a job here, Rufus thought, she was hanging around all the time anyway, either to join him in watching Flynn, Wyatt, and Lucy, or to blush while Jess shamelessly flirted with her and made coffee innuendos.

“I’ve got to do some bullshit final project for my sociology class,” Rufus said. “It’s my final Gen Ed credit and I just need to scrape a passing grade so I can focus on my actual damn major. So I’m doing a paper on non-heteronormative flirting in a workplace environment.”

“…you turned my sister and those two loons into an experiment?”

“Not an experiment. Think of it as a nature documentary.”

“Oh my God.”

“I’m not sure if they’re into each other,” Jiya said slowly, watching as Flynn dared Wyatt to actually try the peppermint mocha and Wyatt told him he’d rather go swim in the lake despite there being an inch of snow on the ground.

“Oh trust me, they’re into each other,” Rufus said. “I haven’t seen Wyatt blush so much in my goddamn life.”

“True,” Jess mused, folding her arms. “I just might have to have a chat with my dear darling ex.”

Amy promptly gave Jess the biggest puppy eyes known to woman. Jess practically melted. “Don’t worry baby I’ll still walk you home after my shift.”

Rufus almost gagged. “You two are the worst.”

“We are perfection,” Amy said staunchly as Jess snuck her an Andes mint.

“You couldn’t flirt with anyone if you tried,” Wyatt said, which was a pretty low blow if you asked Rufus considering everyone and their mother knew that Flynn was desperately trying to flirt with Lucy.

Flynn’s eyes narrowed dangerously. The air seemed to shift and the whole room looked over at him.

“Uh oh,” Amy whispered.

“Is that so?” Flynn said.

Wyatt, with the courage of a man who was doomed and didn’t know it, nodded. Rufus was reminded of that one annoying coworker of John McClane’s wife in the first _Die Hard_ , the one who literally talked himself into getting shot by Hans Gruber.

Flynn smirked, then leaned over the counter and brushed his hand through Wyatt’s hair. “What are you doing?” Wyatt squeaked, now looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“Oh, just getting the snow out of your hair,” Flynn said, his voice now rough and low.

Lucy literally dropped a bag of coffee beans.

“Much better,” Flynn said, his fingers trailing down to adjust Wyatt’s collar.

Lucy looked like she might faint.

Flynn tilted his head a little, licking his lips as his gaze dropped down, down, down Wyatt’s form, and then shot back up to look Wyatt in the eye. Wyatt looked like he was having a heart attack. “That shirt really brings out your eyes,” Flynn noted—and that was when it all seemed to click for Wyatt.

“You goddamn piece of shit,” Wyatt shot out. “That doesn’t _count_.”

“What doesn’t count?” Flynn replied nonchalantly. “Got you all hot and bothered didn’t it?”

“It got me wondering if you’d hit your head,” Wyatt said, his face still a furious shade of red.

“Fascinating,” Jess murmured. “Hey Denise, can I take my break now?”

“I also need to take a break,” Lucy squeaked.

“Jess asked first,” Denise said. Being a senior and stressing out about her political science capstone, Denise gave less than zero fucks about her job.

Jess immediately took off her apron and slipped around the counter, kissing Amy on the cheek and going over to Wyatt. “Heya bestie, let’s go on a walk.”

“We’re—what?” Wyatt looked over at Lucy like he was an abandoned puppy in the rain and she the kindhearted poor little rich girl who could give him a home, but Jess was already dragging him out the door.

“Note,” Rufus said, scribbling. “The Flynn is only capable of flirting well when he’s doing it out of spite.”

* * *

Wyatt glared at Jess as she dragged him out the door. “I’m trying to talk to Lucy.”

“I can see that. Everyone can see that. The whole campus can see that. You could replace your eyes with cut out paper hearts and nobody would notice a difference.”

Sometimes, he wondered why he’d dated this woman for so long. “Am I seriously that obvious?”

“The only thing that could possibly rival your crush on Lucy in obviousness is your crush on Flynn,” Jess informed him.

Wyatt didn’t exactly mean to stop walking. It just sort of happened. He gaped at her, his jaw literally dropping open just a little. He could even feel his damn face heating up again.

“I don’t have a crush on Flynn.”

“Please, puppy, I’ve always known you were bi, it’s about time you figured it out for yourself.”

“I’m not—I’m—Jess!” Wyatt’s stomach churned.

“C’mon Wyatt.” Jess steered him down a snowy path. “Nobody stares at Karl Urban like _that_ unless they want him to jump them.” She paused. “Come to think of it he’s tall, dark, and plays an excellently cranky McCoy… is cranky your type?”

“Given how cranky you are…” Wyatt muttered.

Jess gave him a reassuring squeeze. “I’m serious. Wyatt, did you really never suspect?”

“Can we not talk about this?” His peppermint mocha had been (annoyingly) delicious but now his stomach felt like a washing machine. “I don’t, look, Flynn’s just annoying, okay? He pisses me off. That’s what you’re seeing, you’re just seeing me riled up, that’s all.”

“Wyatt, we dated for five years. I know when you’re riled up and when you’re not.” It was true—Jess had decided to go to college for investigative reporting and wherever Jess went, he followed, especially if it meant he got out of his shit one horse hometown. They’d been together since junior year of high school. “This isn’t you riled up. This is you flustered.”

“He flusters me!”

“Because you want him to suck your cock. Or to order you to suck his.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Wyatt looked around to make sure no one could hear them, even though he already knew they were alone.

Jess sighed, rolling her eyes. “It’s 2018, Wyatt. Calm down.”

“Yeah, and we’re from bumfuck nowhere in Texas and did you notice who’s president?” he snapped. “Besides, all of this is a moot point. I’m not—I like women. He makes me flustered because I’m trying to flirt with Lucy and he gets in the goddamn way…” Wyatt frowned. “Jess is that the LGBTQ+ center?”

“Why yes. Yes it is.”

“I’m not going in there.” He tugged on her arm.

“You don’t have to identify as anything specific, I mean that’s what ‘queer’ is for…”

“Jess. I’m not going in that fucking building.” He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “I don’t care what anyone else feels or who they love, all right? I mean Denise and Michelle are cute as fuck together and you and Amy, like I’m happy for you. But I’m not— _I’m_ not. You understand?”

He was breathing hard, his chest feeling too tight, his skin too hot. Jess gave him a look that he’d seen a few times before—like when he’d first told her he couldn’t get into a college and she’d helped him on his application and then worked an extra shift at the bar to help him pay for the application fee. Or when he’d told her he was tired of living out of his car and was going to stay with his dad again just until school started. Or when he’d gotten into a fight with Mickey Jones after football practice.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice feeling like it was scraped up from sandpaper. “I’m not going in there, Jess. I got homework to do, I’m going to my dorm.”

Jess released his arm and stepped back. “I gotta go walk Amy home, I promised her,” she said quietly.

“Yeah. Yeah, um, have fun.”

He booked it out of there. It wasn’t until he got back to his dorm that he realized the stupid peppermint mocha, long gone cold, was still clutched in his hand.

* * *

Lucy sighed dramatically. “Flynn, which button is for the double shot again? I keep mixing them up.”

She didn’t normally play dumb. She was highly intelligent, thank you very much, and Carol Preston was a lot of unpleasant things but one good thing about her was that she was a woman who insisted other women not hide their light under a bushel, so to speak. She’d encouraged her daughter to show off her smarts and Lucy was damn well going to make sure nobody underestimated her.

Not that it had anything to do with her simultaneous crippling sense of inadequacy and her mother’s demanding goals for her daughter or y’know her terror of never escaping her mother’s shadow.

Ha. Ha ha.

The point was, Lucy Preston did not play dumb to get a guy. She didn’t pretend she couldn’t open a can, she didn’t pretend she couldn’t work the computer, and she didn’t pretend she had no idea how to operate a fancy espresso machine when her biological father who she was now being forced to spend holidays with (yay) had one almost exactly like this in his uber-fancy kitchen at his stupid massive house.

But Flynn was just so goddamn endearing and her conventional methods of flirtation (touching him, making innuendos, and so on) were falling on a deaf brain.

So she resorted to pretending to not know how to work the espresso machine.

Flynn walked over, reaching around her to press the right button. “That one,” he told her, his voice low in her ear.

Lucy leaned back against him so that she could tilt her head up and watch the wonderful phenomenon that was Flynn blushing. “Thank you,” she said sweetly.

Flynn spluttered and her smile widened. “It’s, ah, yes, thank you—I mean your problem. Right. I mean no, no problem, you’re welcome.”

Lucy practically purred as Flynn hurried back over to the cash register, snapping at whoever was in line (it was Emma Whitmore so really who cared if she got a grumpy cashier). How the man was able to raise the temperature of the entire room by ten degrees when he flirted with Wyatt but couldn’t even get out a complete sentence to her was beyond Lucy’s comprehension, but fortunately she found both options appealing.

God, that first one. Oh Lord. She knew what she’d be thinking about in the shower tonight. Wyatt had looked like he’d wanted to beg Flynn to bend him over and Lucy would’ve given her left arm to see that.

Now, how to get Flynn to realize that she was flirting with him and wanted him to also bend _her_ over the counter.

That was the tricky part.

* * *

“What are you doing?” Rufus asked as Jiya wrote on the chalkboard in the back room. “Denise’ll kill you.”

“Not if she wants to keep her place in the betting pool, she won’t,” Jiya replied.

“There’s a betting pool.”

“Yup. Want to put in ten bucks that says Lucy will jump Flynn before Flynn jumps Wyatt?”

“Um, no. I’m writing a project on them, I have to be an impartial observer.”

“Suit yourself.” Jiya finished writing on the chalkboard.

It now said, IT HAS BEEN [blank box] DAYS SINCE THE LAST INCIDENT.

In the black box Jiya had written the number zero.

“You know both Flynn and Lucy go back here.”

“Eh, they’ll think it’s since someone got a steam burn or something.”

Rufus sighed. “Why do I date you?”

Jiya batted her eyelashes at him. “Because I’m pretty?”

He laughed. “’Cause you’re pretty, sure thing Kaylee.”

He leaned in to kiss her—and then Dave popped his head in. “Hey, Jiya? Can I put twenty down on them figuring their shit out before Christmas break? Lucy just popped a few buttons open on her shirt and Flynn walked into the wall.”

“Bold of you to assume it’ll happen before spring break, but okay.”

Rufus sighed. “I hate this place.”

“You’re using them as a sociology project, Rufus my t’hy’la. Can it.”


	3. Chapter 3

Wyatt was playing his usual tug-of-war with Flynn. “You said you didn’t want it,” Flynn told him, trying to get the hazelnut latte from him.

“Well I paid for it.”

Jiya, who was working the cash register so that Flynn could continue to play said tug-of-war, grumbled something unintelligible.

Flynn shrugged as if to say _your funeral_ and let go of the coffee cup, but he did so right as Wyatt tugged on it, and another customer bumped into him pretty hard—

The cup didn’t have a lid on it yet and it spilled all over Wyatt.

Flynn moved faster than Wyatt could’ve thought possible, getting over the counter and yanking at Wyatt’s shirt. “Watch where the fuck you’re going,” he snarled at the guy who’d bumped into Wyatt, scaring the living daylights out of them. He turned to Wyatt, and wow his eyes were soft, huh. “Are you okay? Did it burn you?”

“It hurts a little but no, I’m fine.”

Lucy popped her head out from the back room, saw the coffee stain, and sprinted over. “Oh my God are you okay?”

“Um, no, I mean yes! I mean I’m fine!” He both wanted them to stop touching him but also to never stop touching him ever. Lucy grabbed a wet rag used for wiping off tables and started wiping at Wyatt while Flynn checked him for burns.

“I swear I’m okay,” Wyatt insisted, his breath coming in short and his face heating up as Flynn ran his hands up his chest.

“You could’ve been really hurt,” Flynn snapped.

“Honestly, it’s more annoying than anything,” Wyatt said. He didn’t have any spare clothes on him and he had to get to class.

“I’d lend you something if I had it,” Lucy said, squeezing his hand.

Flynn walked into the back room without a word. Jesus, what was that guy’s problem? Was it because Lucy held his hand?

…oh God Lucy was holding his hand.

Don’t panic, Logan, don’t panic don’t panic don’t panic…

Flynn emerged. “I was going to wear it after the shift but it’s fine,” he said gruffly, handing Wyatt a dark blue button up shirt and a white t-shirt to go underneath. Wyatt personally thought Flynn looked better in that dark red turtleneck he was currently sporting.

He took the clothes automatically, swallowing hard around the weird lump in his throat. “Are you sure?”

“The blue will look good with your eyes,” Lucy said.

Wyatt thought he might pass out. He’d spill coffee on himself every day if it got him these results. “Thanks.”

“Put the damn shirt on, Wyatt,” Flynn growled.

“Fuck, okay, Jesus Christ.” Wyatt took off his coffee-sodden clothes and put the new shirts on.

Lucy made a squeaking noise as Flynn practically hollered, “I didn’t mean right here in the middle of the—oh for God’s sake.”

Wyatt finished putting the shirts on and glared at Flynn, who was glaring right back at him while Lucy had gone red-faced. “Happy?”

“Very,” Flynn snapped.

“Good.” Fuck these clothes smelled nice. Really, really nice. Like… like turning him on nice, actually.

…oh God they smelled like Flynn. He was going to walk around the rest of the day smelling like Flynn, smelling Flynn on him…

Lucy gasped. “Oh, stay right here!”

She ran back over to the coffee machine, knocking into Rufus who was writing in his notebook again and muttering something about “fiercely territorial protective instincts.” She futzed around for a moment, then ran back—with a new cup of coffee in hand.

“Hazelnut latte,” she said breathlessly. “To replace the one that you dropped.”

Wyatt could feel himself blushing. Dammit. “Thanks, Lucy.”

“Anytime.” His fingers closed over hers as he took the cup and she gave him an adorable smile that made the corners of her eyes crinkle up. “You should go to class,” she added softly.

“Yeah. Yeah I should.” He didn’t want to go. “Have a good rest of your shift, Luce.”

“Have a good class.”

“Return the damn shirt,” Flynn said.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Wyatt replied, rolling his eyes and giving Flynn a sarcastic salute as he walked out the door.

Goddammit now he was going to have an awkward half-boner whenever he smelled his own damn shirt.

* * *

Lucy sagged back against the counter. Oh hot damn. Wyatt was—mmm that was a very well-defined body he was hiding under those heavy winter clothes. She wanted to lick all over that. She wondered if he had sensitive nipples, if she bit one softly how he’d respond, if she should’ve offered to help him out of his pants too if they’d gotten coffee on them, if she could’ve… licked the coffee off his stomach with her tongue, followed it all the way… down…

“Lucy!”

She snapped out of it, jumping as Rufus snapped his fingers in front of her face. “You have coffee orders.”

“Oh, right, sorry!” She quickly grabbed a cup.

Dammit, why couldn’t everyone let her be horny in peace?

* * *

Okay, so Flynn had known from the start that Wyatt was pretty.

And he’d known that maybe, if he thought about it, he could be attracted to the guy.

But now he was standing there keeping up a constant low growl at customers because he couldn’t escape the fact that the only thing hotter than seeing Wyatt shirtless was seeing Wyatt wearing Flynn’s clothes.

He’d smell like him all day. He’d have to push the slightly too-long sleeves up to his elbows.

Flynn wanted to fuck him while Wyatt was wearing nothing but Flynn’s shirt, that stamp of Flynn’s—not ownership, he couldn’t own anyone and didn’t want to, thanks—but Flynn’s connection, their relationship, their…

Goddammit he wasn’t going to go around having a crush on Wyatt. He had a horrible crush on Lucy already, why the hell did it have to be two people?

What kind of bullshit was this, universe!?

* * *

Rufus made another note in his notebook. _The Flynn is a highly protective creature whose love language tends to be acts of service, noted by said protective streak and by providing needed items to potential mates like preferred coffee choices and clothing. In the case of a potential mate not taking care of themselves properly like insisting on ordering coffee flavors they hate, the Flynn will take it upon himself to substitute better choices, often crankily and without the permission of the potential mate._

_Conclusion: the Flynn is utter trash at flirting._

“Whatcha got there?” Lucy asked.

Rufus screamed in fear. Lucy laughed. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think you’d scare that easily!”

“No, no, it’s fine,” he said, his heart racing like it was in the Triple Crown. “Uh, it’s just a sociology project.”

“Oh.” Lucy glanced back over at where Flynn was restocking. She was definitely eyeing the muscles in his arms.

“Lucy, tell me, how long have you been working here?”

“Fifteen days.”

“And how long have you had a crush on our Croatian sassweasel?”

“…fifteen days.”

“That’s what I thought. Hint: he’s never going to make a move. You have to do it.”

“Rufus. C’mon. I’m an awkward klutz who won’t shut up about American colonialism, he’s never going to go for me.”

“He’s a smitten kitten, Lucy Preston.”

Lucy shook her head. “He’s ignored every hint I’ve given him.”

“Because he’s an idiot who doesn’t know they’re hints!” Rufus threw his hands into the air. “Never mind, just—try and keep the pining away from the customers? I think some—okay, all—of them are taking bets.”

Lucy quickly looked over at several customers, who were in fact looking between her and Flynn and muttering to one another. She flushed pink.

In the back room, Jiya erased the ‘two’ on the chalk board and replaced it with ‘minus three’ because ‘that shirt bullshit deserved some negative points’.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, if anyone ever thinks they're seeing timeless-season-three references in here... you'd be right.

Lucy honestly just wanted this day to be over.

She’d had a phone call from Mom earlier in the morning which had been, y’know, fun. _Oh honey the Cahills are so excited to have you come see them for the holidays_ etc. etc.

The last thing she wanted to do was spend her Christmas holiday, her one time to relax, with her newly-discovered biological father and her snobby half-brother and (the most awkward) her biological father’s wife. What Mrs. Benjamin Cahill thought about her husband’s college fling walking back into his life with a daughter in tow, Lucy didn't know, but it discomforted her that the woman had so far acted like this was the most normal thing in the world.

Stepford, anyone?

Then her class had a surprise test which, y’know, _fun_ , and then she was late for her ridiculous chemistry class that she was only taking to fill a Gen Ed credit, why did she go to a small liberal arts school, and she accidentally skipped lunch, and then she had to work five hours and she really just didn’t want to give one more plastic smile to one more demanding student looking for a caffeine fix.

Flynn clearly noticed something was up. He didn’t talk to her like usual, just quietly went about his business, giving her space. At one point he put his hands on her hips as he moved behind her and then froze, pulling away. Lucy placed her hands over his and squeezed. After that, he’d gently move her whenever he walked by, or touch her on the shoulder or hip, just letting her know he was there.

Wyatt came in about an hour before closing, his eyebrows shooting up when Lucy just gave him a wane smile in greeting. He looked over at Flynn.

“Bad day,” Flynn whispered.

Wyatt looked over at her, then leaned in, bracing himself on the counter to say something low in Flynn’s ear that Lucy couldn’t hear.

Flynn passed her the order—not at all Wyatt’s usual. He’d gotten one of the paninis the shop had, and two salted caramel hot chocolates.

Lucy made the hot chocolates while Flynn got the sandwich, but when she handed Wyatt the drinks, he pushed one back at her.

Flynn set the sandwich down in front of her, then nodded towards Wyatt. “Go on, sit. We’re slow.”

She almost burst into tears.

Wyatt didn’t say anything, other than glaring at Flynn while he stubbornly drank the hot chocolate. Flynn gave him the middle finger, smirking.

The sandwich was fucking delicious, although that probably was because she hadn’t eaten all day. “How’d you know I like salted caramel?”

Wyatt shrugged. “It’s what you always get for yourself when you go off shift, when you don’t get a mocha.”

She could feel herself blushing and took a quick sip to hide it.

Flynn strode over, looking like he wanted to strangle something. “If one more person walks in here, I’m not going to be responsible for my actions.”

“Nobody’s going to come in,” Lucy pointed out. She gestured at the raging snow outside. “They’d have to be crazy.”

She nudged one of the chairs with her foot. Flynn sat down backwards, the back of the chair at his chest, his arms folded over it, his legs straddling the seat.

“I should’ve known you can’t even sit like a normal human being,” Wyatt snorted.

“I’m bi, I’m contractually obligated to never sit in a chair the way the makers intended.”

Lucy almost choked on her drink, then held up her hand for a high five. “That makes two of us.”

Wyatt’s cheeks were pink. “How did… how’d you know?”

“When your sister stares at Hugh Jackman in _Van Helsing_ and you stare at Kate Beckinsale, you start to figure it out,” she replied.

“Lorena figured it out,” Flynn admitted. “My, uh, my girlfriend before I transferred.”

Lucy’d known that Flynn transferred. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

“Yeah. It was pretty serious.”

“What happened?” Wyatt asked. “If you don’t mind, I just mean—like with Jess and me—”

“She died,” Flynn said bluntly.

Wyatt’s mouth fell open.

“Our campus had a rash of break ins,” Flynn said. “People were getting shit stolen all the time, like their computers, really important things. Lorena was the unlucky one who was in her room when the guy broke in. He panicked, she tried to fight him, he had a knife…” Flynn swallowed hard. “I came in just a… about ten minutes too late to find the guy. Called emergency services but… she died, um, there on the floor, while I was holding her.”

“Garcia.” Lucy took his hand, her thumb rubbing softly back and forth. “I’m so sorry.”

Wyatt looked like he’d had the espresso machine chucked at his head. “I…” He shook his head, then shrugged. “There aren’t really words, are there?”

“You learn to live with it, and you hate that you learn to live with it, and then you learn to find a way to be okay, because that’s what the person would want,” Flynn replied. He tightened his hold on Lucy’s fingers and gave her a small, reassuring smile, as if to let her know that he really was okay.

“Oh look, a subject change,” Wyatt said quickly.

Flynn laughed. “Going back a subject… Lorena noticed that I was looking at guys a lot, checking them out. It hadn’t even occurred to me that it was sexual. I just—you’re so used to everything being straight and you like to look at women, and so you don’t even think to examine the thoughts you have for men. You make excuses to yourself that it’s just hero worship, or a friend crush, you know how you get those? And it took that outside view for me to realize and acknowledge that no, I could be just as happy someday with a man as with a woman. Or a variation thereupon.”

“Did you just make a _Doctor Who_ reference?” Lucy asked.

Flynn grinned at her. “I can’t believe you caught that, nobody ever does.”

“Tennant’s amazing but I’ll be honest, the 9th Doctor is my favorite.”

“I’ve never seen it,” Wyatt admitted.

“You have to,” Flynn insisted. “Might help you be less cranky.”

“I’m the cranky one!?”

Lucy laughed at Flynn’s smirk and Wyatt’s indignant face. Her hand was still tucked over Flynn’s, and Wyatt’s feet tangled with hers.

“…what about polyamory?” she blurted out before she could talk herself out of it.

Wyatt, who had been taking a sip of his hot chocolate, nearly spewed it all over the table and decided to choke instead.

Flynn thumped him on the back. “Never really thought about it,” he admitted. “Not against it. If it happens to me it happens but it’s not something I need. I was happy with just Lorena. If I find two people then… then it’s two people. If it’s one person it’s one.”

“I didn’t think it was really possible,” Lucy admitted. “To want to be with two people equally like that, and to want them to want each other. Now I think… I think it’s definitely possible.”

Wyatt was blushing furiously, clearly feeling awkward with the conversation. “Live and let live,” he managed to get out, looking down at his cup. “I don’t care what anyone else does.”

“And yet you care so much what others think of you.”

“Wow, didn’t know you were majoring in psychology, Flynn.”

“You order a coffee you don’t like every day just so that you can tell people you drink black coffee, the most manly of manly coffees. It’s not a hard conclusion to draw.”

“Oh, I love this song,” Lucy said quickly, before a proper fight could flare up. Nobody could push each other’s buttons like Wyatt and Flynn.

Both men went silent, listening to the song. “Lorena used to hum all the time,” Flynn said. “Drove me nuts.”

“My mom would hum,” Lucy said. Back when she and her mom were on good terms. Those days felt incredibly far away. “I’ve always liked vintage music. Jazz and all that.”

“I wouldn’t be a Texan boy if I didn’t like country,” Wyatt said. “But not this new crap. I mean like Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, John Denver…”

“I love him!” Lucy said, sitting up.

Flynn groaned. “I will make you two listen to Croatian music, don’t tempt me.”

Rufus emerged from the back. “Okay, I am finally finished restocking. And by finished I mean yes I was doing my homework back there, did I miss anything?”

“Told you he was doing homework,” Flynn said to Lucy.

“All right, I owe you a coffee.” She tried to make her tone of voice annoyed, but her smile probably ruined it.

“Oh, it’s snowing again?” Rufus turned right back around. “Anyone wants me I’ll be crouching by the heater.”

Lucy checked the clock. Another half hour until closing?

She could actually live with that. In a strange turnaround of events… she didn’t want the day to be over.

* * *

Wyatt was just about having a heart attack with all this sexuality talk.

Lucy and Flynn were bi—and okay with dating more than one person? With the whole—polyamory thing?

His heart felt like it was switching from normal beats to a tap dance routine.

Rufus went back to text Jiya and make camp by the heater, nobody else was in the shop, and neither Lucy nor Flynn looked like they wanted to move. Wyatt figured he could leave… but he didn’t want to.

Fuck, what was he supposed to do? What was he—how could he—when Flynn made his stomach swoop and Lucy was like a warm fire that he just had to get close to? What did he do with any of that? And it was all theoretical anyway, right? Neither of them really—it was clear that Flynn was gone ass over teakettle for Lucy and the way Lucy was holding his hand—

If he didn’t let himself want it, then he couldn’t lose it, right?

“Best John Denver song?” Lucy asked.

“ _Calypso_ ,” Wyatt replied.

“Ooh, something other than _Country Roads_ , I’m impressed.”

“I will start singing Sinatra at the top of my goddamn lungs,” Flynn warned.

“Sinatra’s flat,” Lucy replied.

“He tried to have Woody Allen offed by the mob.”

“…okay never mind. I like him.”

“I like that one…” Wyatt tried to remember. “Something about a kick?”

“Ain’t that a kick in the head?” Flynn sang, his voice low and rough.

Wyatt hated that he was insanely turned on by that. “Um, no the other one?”

“I get no kick in a plane,” Lucy sang softly, her voice surprisingly sweet. “Flying too high, with some gal in the sky is my idea of nothing to do, but I get a kick out of you.”

Wyatt couldn’t have stopped the smile spreading over his face if he’d tried. “Yeah, that one. You sing really well.”

“I took singing and piano lessons, Mom insisted.”

Flynn nudged her. “Sing something.”

Lucy blushed. “I couldn’t…”

“No one’s around,” Wyatt pointed out.

“Oh my God.” Lucy cleared her throat. “This is going to suck because it’s a cappella.”

“Do it,” Flynn chanted, and Wyatt joined in. “Do it, do it, do it…”

“Just to get you two to shut up,” Lucy grumbled, but she stood up on her chair. “Fine.” She cleared her throat. “Okay, this one’s called _You Made Me Love You_. And neither of you are allowed to laugh.”

Flynn drew a cross over his heart with his finger and Wyatt held up his pinkie. “Pinkie swear.”

Lucy started singing.

Wyatt’s stomach dropped out.

Flynn looked like someone had dropped an anvil on him, which was about how Wyatt felt. Lucy’s voice was clear and definitely leant itself to old-fashioned songs. Wyatt was staring at her, and staring at Flynn staring at her, and she was really getting into it now, no longer laughing at herself as she went, soaking up the attention, and Flynn looked like he was having the time of his life and Wyatt’s heart squeezed looking at him and—

And oh fuck he was in love with both of them.

* * *

Flynn couldn’t stop glancing over at Wyatt as Lucy sang. The rapt look on his face, the sheer adoration… fuck. It transformed Wyatt’s usual expression of exhaustion and frustration into something—it turned him from _pretty_ to fucking _adorable_ , and Flynn had no clue how to handle that.

Lucy finished singing and took a bow as he and Wyatt applauded. Flynn reached up before he knew what he was doing, taking her by the waist and lifting her back down onto the floor. Lucy smiled up at him, her hands resting on his chest.

It felt like he couldn’t breathe. He hadn’t—crushes were one thing but he’d never felt anything like this except for Lorena, and—the fact that he’d even told Wyatt and Lucy about her, when he hadn’t told anyone except for his mom, he’d moved to another college to hide from that part of his past, to avoid running into anyone who would talk to him about her—

“You all right?” Lucy asked quietly.

“I’m great.” He forced himself to let go of her and sit back down. “You were amazing.”

“That was fantastic,” Wyatt told her.

Lucy blushed. “Thanks, guys. I haven’t done that in ages I forgot… I forgot how much I liked it.”

Flynn glanced over at Wyatt’s adoring expression, catching the way Lucy’s eyes shone as she smiled back at him. They were so clearly into each other. He might even dare to say in love with each other.

It was like throwing closed the shutters on a window. He couldn’t let himself fall for a happy couple, even if neither had taken the step to make them a couple yet. He wasn’t going to set himself up for a new kind of heartbreak after the pain of the last one.

“So… what’s up?” Wyatt asked, looking at Lucy. “You had a bad day, you want to talk about it?”

Lucy shrugged. “I mean, there’s no point. Just my mom being my mom, controlling everything.”

“Are you…” Wyatt glanced at Flynn as if looking for backup. “Are you safe?”

“Safe?”

“My old man would—he was a piece of work. He’d hit me, drag me around. He’d take me out in the middle of the night and scare me half to death driving the car to pieces, then make me fix it.”

“Wyatt—”

“I’m not telling you for sympathy, Lucy, I’m telling so you know it’s safe to tell me.”

“You didn’t talk all day,” Flynn added. “That’s not like you.”

Lucy wiped quickly at her eyes. “I, uh, found out recently that my dad—the guy who raised me—isn’t my biological father. My mom’s been trying to get me to spend the holidays with my biological father and his family but I don’t want to. And I don’t know how to say no.”

“That’s bullshit,” Flynn growled, startling himself. “Family’s what you make of it.”

“Jess is my family,” Wyatt said. “She’s like a sister instead of a girlfriend now but she’s still family. My old man isn’t.”

“Same,” Flynn said, looking over at Wyatt. “My dad, he’d hit me too. And my mom.”

“My mom’s just… her way goes. It feels like I can’t breathe half the time.”

Flynn grabbed her hand, startling himself. “If you ever need anything, Lucy, I promise, you got us.”

Wyatt nodded. “Hell yeah you do.”

Lucy’s cheeks were bright pink. “Thank you. Both of you. It’s—it’s just good to know that someone knows, even.”

Flynn’s heart thumped painfully. Fuck, he was so screwed. He glanced at the clock. “Closing time,” he said, standing.

“Oh, I’ll go,” Wyatt said.

“No, you can stay,” Lucy replied.

Flynn looked over at Wyatt, at his stupid scruffy face that Flynn just wanted to kiss because he was stupid, stupid, stupid. “Yeah, stay.”

The corner of Wyatt’s mouth turned up in a shy grin. “Thanks.”

Rufus helped Lucy and Flynn close down and clean up. Lucy kept humming and singing snatches of songs and Rufus kept stopping to write stuff down in his notebook, but they got it all done pretty quickly.

“C’mon.” Lucy grabbed his hand. “We all live nearby, right? In the dorms?”

Wyatt was waiting by the door, watching Lucy. Flynn swallowed. “You go on. I’ve got an errand.”

Lucy’s face faltered. “Okay.” She squeezed his hand. “Have a good night.”

She grabbed Wyatt on her way out the door. Rufus walked up to him. “You might be the biggest idiot known to man.”

“It took you two years to ask Jiya out so maybe you can stuff it, genius.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat!” Amy yelled at the top of her lungs as she entered the coffee shop. “Please put a penny in the old man’s hat!”

Various customers glared at her. Others, more used to Amy’s antics, ignored her.

“If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do,” Amy continued, hopping onto the counter and kissing Lucy on the cheek, “and if you haven’t got a ha’penny then God bless you!”

“Your Christmas spirit can go walk in front of a bus,” Lucy told her.

“Why so cranky?” Jiya asked.

Jess emerged from the back, furiously texting someone. “Fuck, damn, fucking goddamn—”

Amy sidled over to her. “Bad day?”

Jess shoved her phone into her pocket and let Amy give her a thorough kiss hello. Lucy rolled her eyes. She didn’t need to see her sister swapping spit with anyone, thanks. “Mmm, doing much better now,” Jess said, wrapping her arms around Amy’s waist and kissing her on the nose. “Wyatt and I didn’t really think about the whole ‘we’re breaking up so you’ll be stuck alone on campus all Christmas break’ thing.”

“He doesn’t have anywhere to go?” Lucy asked.

“Usually he’d stay with my family but he insists it would be too awkward for him to come now.”

“Of course he does.”

“So why are _you_ cranky?” Jiya asked again.

“Mom wants Lucy to spend Christmas with some awful family members,” Amy said. “Instead of with me, which is obviously more awesome.”

“Hey, you could come spend Christmas with me,” Jess said suddenly. “Cute small town, lots of snow, a nice big house with lots of comfy, comfy furniture…”

“Please don’t talk about having sex with my sister in front of me.”

“So just say no,” Jiya said.

“You don’t just ‘say no’ to my mom.”

Flynn and Wyatt entered at the same time, bickering. “Of fucking course you like _Wuthering Heights_ ,” Flynn snapped. “That is just so typical.”

“Typical? I’m typical? Clearly somebody doesn’t appreciate the tragic—”

“You’re late,” Denise said to Flynn, exiting from the back and walking past.

Flynn ignored her. “You do realize that Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship is textbook toxic, right?”

“You do realize that Austen is boring, right?”

“You _take that back_.”

“I’ll take it back if you can change my mind.”

“I will sit your ass down and make you watch every single Austen film, so help me—”

“Flynn!” Denise barked. “Unless you’d like to stop receiving a steady paycheck, last I checked you work here!”

Flynn grabbed an apron, walked around behind the counter, put his hands on Lucy’s hips to lift her up and move her out of the way, and the planted himself behind the cash register so that he was, effectively, standing right in front of Wyatt again. “The Brontë sisters are overdramatized and appeal when you’re in high school and you love all that drama but then you get older and realize—”

“You only like Austen because you identify with—one black coffee and a bagel—with the constipated heroes who never say what they’re feeling.”

“Constipated? You like Heathcliff and you want to talk—toasted with cream cheese?—about _constipated heroes_?”

“Personally I think the both of you are forgetting the influence of the Gothic genre,” Lucy piped up.

Both men turned to look at her. Wyatt blinked. “Marry me.”

Flynn printed Wyatt’s receipt and said loudly, “Make him a maple pecan latte.”

“Oh fuck you.”

Flynn held up the bagel he’d grabbed. “Do not mess with the man in charge of making your food.”

“What are you gonna do, spit in it?”

“Allow me to remind you what cream cheese also looks like.”

“Yeah, you’d love it if I—” Wyatt backtracked so goddamn fast he looked like he almost fell over. “Jess!” He blurted out instead.

Jess looked the opposite of impressed. “Wyatt.”

“How’re your Christmas break plans?”

“…the same as always,” Jess replied. A gleam entered her eyes. “And how about yours? Shacking up all alone on campus?”

“What?” Flynn asked.

“Wyatt and Lucy are both out for the holidays,” Jiya piped in. “Lucy doesn’t want to go home and Wyatt has no home to go to.”

“If only there was someone used to staying on campus during breaks since he was an international student who could help them get break housing,” Amy sighed. “Hey, you could even all bunk together!”

Wyatt, who had accepted the drink Lucy handed him and taken a sip, did an impressive spit take.

Flynn glared at the girls. “Could you stop doing that? He’s gonna choke.”

“I think he could use some help with that gag reflex,” Amy muttered.

Lucy kicked her. She had enough inappropriate fantasies about Flynn and Wyatt fucking each other, thanks, she didn’t need more of them.

“…we could do it,” Flynn said, his voice tight and his gaze darting back and forth between her and Wyatt. “You normally have to pay for break housing but I have a single and it’s pretty big, you could hide out with me. Your mom wouldn’t have to know any details, Lucy.”

A flutter of hope exploded in her chest like a thousand tiny butterflies. “I—I’ll have to think about it.” She’d have to find some way to work up the guts to say no to Mom first, but…

But could she?

Could _they_?

And did that mean that—that she hadn’t been wrong to bring up polyamory the other night?

Lucy dared to let herself smile. “I’d like it, though. I’d like it a lot.”

* * *

Flynn had no goddamn idea what he’d been thinking when he’d suggested that Lucy and Wyatt stay with him for Christmas break.

Well, he’d known what he’d been thinking. He’d been thinking about cozy, steamy sex underneath the blankets when the radiator gave out. He’d been thinking about eating Lucy out until her toes curled and coaxing Wyatt to climax by whispering in his ear. He’d been thinking about using the shitty dorm room kitchen to make a holiday meal, and curling up on the bed to watch movies, and bundling up to go out ice skating on the lake and stargazing while drinking hot chocolate. He’d been thinking about a month of not waking up in bed alone but with two warm, happy people in his arms.

But that wasn’t—that was ridiculous, to think that. He wasn’t going to be a third wheel. Sometimes he thought Lucy liked him as well as Wyatt, but Wyatt—well, he’d be an idiot not to know where he stood with Wyatt.

He couldn’t believe he’d actually suggested the idea. But now that he had, there was no taking it back. And both Lucy and Wyatt looked actually hopeful. He supposed that, even if Lucy only saw him as a friend or a quick fuck (he didn’t know which idea hurt him more) she would be relieved to spend the holiday with someone she liked rather than family that made her feel uncomfortable. And even Wyatt clearly didn’t want to spend the holiday alone.

He was in for it now, in other words, and he had no one to blame but himself.

* * *

Flynn had invited them? To stay in his dorm room? For the Christmas break?

Wyatt hadn’t enjoyed the idea of staying in a dorm room alone or in break housing. Rufus was going home to his mom and brother and was bringing Jiya with him, since her mom had moved back to Lebanon a couple years ago. Jess was going home and she’d made it clear that Wyatt could come too—after losing their son when Jess was little, he knew the Moores had always seen him as sort of another son, not a replacement exactly but almost—but he didn’t know if he could trust himself back in that small town. He liked who he was becoming at college. He didn’t want to go back and regress.

He hadn’t known what else to do… but now…

But, fuck, he’d be sharing a room with Flynn and Lucy. He’d be—they’d be right there, and the very idea of—what if he walked in on Flynn naked? All of that… well he didn’t know for sure but Flynn was damn strong, he had to be muscled, and his skin was a shade or two more tan than Wyatt’s, and his hair would be all floppy from sleep…

 _All right, Logan,_ he told himself _. When you’re drooling thinking about seeing another guy’s dick you just might be, ah, less straight than you’d thought._

But that then begged the question even more of _what the fuck was he supposed to do with this!?_

“Wyatt,” Jess said, elbowing him. “Earth to Wyatt.”

Jiya sighed, got up, then went into the back room. When she emerged a moment later she said, “It’s been zero days since the last incident.”

Several people, including Amy, groaned.

Wyatt grabbed Jess and dragged her away as Lucy started making his maple nut whatever. “I can’t stay with them over the break!” he hissed.

“Why not? Because they might, God forbid, learn you want to bone them and act on it?” Jess wrenched her arm away.

“Flynn doesn’t like me like that!”

“So you admit that you like him?”

“Okay, yes, fine, I want him to fuck me, I really, really want him to fuck me, are you happy?”

“Extremely. Especially since I was recording that.”

Wyatt could literally feel the blood draining from his face. “No you weren’t.”

“No, I wasn’t.” Jess patted him on the cheek. “But it sure scared you, didn’t it? Now go stop being an idiot, tell them you like them, and drink your maple pecan latte.”

Wyatt wasn’t sure about the first, he definitely didn’t manage the second, but he did do the third.

Goddammit.

“Stop making these,” he hissed at Lucy.

“When you pick an actual favorite, we’ll make those,” she shot back. “I will make you a unicorn pink drink don’t test me.”

“You’re worse than Flynn, you know that?”

“Ah, I see the queen of constipation is back,” Flynn said as Emma walked up to the counter.

Lucy gave Wyatt a look that said _really?_

“Okay not like that. But c’mon. Luce.”

“No.” She tapped his coffee cup. “Admit that you like these better and pick a favorite and the torture will cease.”

Wyatt’s heart did a goddamn somersault. “I’ll think about it.”

“Think about the Christmas break thing too,” Lucy added.

“…I will.”

If he could stop internally screaming about it first.


	6. Chapter 6

Wyatt grabbed Jess on her way out the door. “Jess, Jess please, we gotta talk.”

Jess looked at Amy, who shrugged. “I’ll see you later?”

“Of course, baby, good luck in class.” Jess kissed Amy on the cheek and then glared at Wyatt. “You just cost me oral, I hope you know that.”

“On the list of things I never needed to know or hear, that is number one.”

“This better be good.”

Wyatt glanced around, clutching his maple pecan latte (dammit) like it was a lifeline. “Jess, what the hell do I do, seriously, what the hell do I do? Like fuck—I don’t wanna go to the center, you know I don’t like places like that, I mean, not LGBT places but, you know, and—Christmas break is a week away how the fuck do I get a handle on this?”

Jess sighed, hooking her arm through his and walking him down the street. “Wyatt, you do whatever you want to do with this. Okay? You want to tell no one, that’s fine. You want to go and sign up for counseling, that’s fine. It’s up to you. As for Flynn, so you want to fuck the guy, he’s hot, you could do worse in the looks department.”

“He’s not a goddamn piece of meat, Jess,” Wyatt snapped, surprised at his own vehemence. “Okay?”

“Oh my God.” Jess grinned at him in disbelief. “You _like_ him. You’ve got feelings for him!”

“Maybe? Yes?” Wyatt scrubbed at his face as if that would erase his embarrassment. “You can’t tell anyone, all right? Especially Flynn.”

“Why? I mean, I won’t tell, it’s not my business to tell, but why?”

“Because he hates my guts, that’s why.”

Jess stopped in her tracks and Wyatt nearly fell over as he kept going and was jerked back. “Wyatt,” she said.

“What?”

Jess let go of his arm and took his face in her hands. “Listen to me very carefully. Flynn undercharges you for your coffee.”

“What?”

“Every day you order one black coffee. But every day he has Lucy make you some fancy coffee drink that always costs at least a couple bucks more.” She poked his cup. “This? You got half off.”

Wyatt got that swooping feeling in his stomach again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know, Wyatt, you figure it out.”

* * *

“Hey, buddy,” Rufus said carefully as Flynn was counting the till. “Can’t help but notice you’re a little distracted today.”

“Rufus. You know that our relationship has been based on sarcasm, movie references, and pretending we still mutually dislike each other because I got into a fight with Professor Bruhl last year, yes?”

“Yes?” Rufus looked confused as to where this was going.

“So if I were to, say, talk to you about something personal…” Flynn made a note in the accounts and put the money back. “You wouldn’t think I’d lost my mind for talking to you about it?”

“I’ll permit it, just this once.”

Flynn closed the drawer. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do about the Christmas break thing.”

“You invited Lucy and Wyatt to stay with you, Jiya told me. I’ll be honest man for a moment I thought you’d actually told them you like them.”

“Wyatt thinks I’m an asshole and I’m not putting Lucy in the middle of that, if that’s even what she wants.”

Rufus rolled his eyes. “The woman could strip naked in front of you and you’d just ask if she needed help with putting her clothes in the laundry, I swear to God.”

Flynn folded his arms and glared at him. “You’re not helping.”

“I never agreed to help, I agreed to listen,” Rufus replied. But then he sighed, leaning against the shelves. “Look. This thing you three have going on for the last few weeks? It’s been driving us all nuts. You’re the only ones stopping yourselves. Just—tell them you like them and you’ll see what happens. Either way… what I realized with Jiya was that having an answer, even one that hurt me, was better than living in limbo.”

He clapped Flynn on the shoulder. “Just think about it, okay?”

“…okay.”

Rufus started to walk away, but Flynn called after him. “Hey, Rufus?”

Rufus looked back. Flynn nodded at him. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

* * *

Lucy wiped down the counters while Jiya pulled out some fresh scones. “I thought I was obvious,” she said. She’d brought up polyamory. She’d _literally_ as good as said, ‘hey let’s all date’, and neither one of those stupid handsome idiots she’d been falling for took the bait.

“What do I have to do?” Lucy growled, “Lie naked on the counter covered in coffee cake?”

“Knowing these idiots…” Jiya said, “It might be worth a shot.”

“In all seriousness, should I just straight up tell them?” Lucy had never told anyone that she liked them. Noah was her only serious relationship and he’d asked her out, and they’d gone from there. She’d never had to be the one to do the declaring.

“I mean, I had to walk up to Rufus and kiss him for him to get the memo,” Jiya said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if these two were the same. Wyatt dated Jess since sophomore year of high school, he’s never been with anyone else.”

Lucy didn’t think Flynn had told anyone else about Lorena, but it made sense that he’d be a bit gun shy if the last person he’d fallen in love with had ended up dead in his arms.

“What if they say no?” she asked. Being okay with polyamory in theory was one thing, but practice was another. And she still wasn’t entirely sure where Flynn and Wyatt stood with each other. She was pretty damn sure they were flirting with each other and just didn’t realize it, but how did you bring that up to someone? And was Wyatt even aware that he wasn’t straight, and if he was, was he okay with that fact?

“Then you have an answer and you can start to move on with your life,” Jiya replied. She paused. “And, hey, if you don’t have anywhere to go, I can persuade Rufus to have you join us. Or Jess would be okay with bringing you and Amy, I think.”

“I don’t want to impose…”

Denise paused as she walked by. “You don’t have anywhere to go for Christmas?”

Lucy shrugged. “I have somewhere to go, but I don’t want to go there.”

“She might spend break with Wyatt and Flynn,” Jiya added.

Lucy glared at her. “But that might not work out.”

“Well, if it doesn’t, you’re welcome to spend it with Michelle and me,” Denise said.

Lucy stared at her. “What?”

“Michelle, my girlfriend. She grew up in foster care so she doesn’t really have family, and I’m Hindu, so Christmas break is really chill for us. My mom loves having me bring friends home, she’d adopt you on the spot.”

“That’s… that’s really thoughtful, Denise, thank you.” Lucy hadn’t expected it from her ‘done with this shit’ manager who rarely spoke to anyone if she could help it. “I’ll take you up on that if this thing with Wyatt and Flynn doesn’t work out.”

Denise graced her with a rare, maternal smile. “No problem. Also you missed a spot.”

Lucy rolled her eyes, but dutifully wiped up the spot she missed, smiling to herself.

It was good, y’know, to know that she had more friends than she’d thought. People she could rely on.

But that meant she had to bite the bullet and actually talk to Wyatt and Flynn.

…fuck.

* * *

Rufus waited until it was almost closing to put the playlist in.

After all, he wouldn’t want to embarrass the trash threesome too much, even though he knew practically everyone on campus was invested in this saga of mess at this point.

Wyatt was sitting at a table doing homework because, somehow, his continued protests about his dislike of a) coffeeshops in general b) hipster coffeeshops especially c) the price of coffee and d) ‘coffee flavored milk shakes’ none of those things were stopping him from being in The Lifeboat all day every day within easy talking distance of Lucy—and by extension easy bickering distance of Flynn.

Flynn himself was working the register again. Rufus was convinced that Denise put Flynn there because she secretly enjoyed listening to him sass the customers. Lucy was cleaning out the machine, dumping the used coffee grounds.

Jess and Amy were curled up on one of the couches in the center of the shop, watching some TV show on a laptop and laughing. Jiya was napping on the other couch, having clocked out an hour ago. Dave Baumgardner was helping Denise with something in the back room.

The timing was perfect.

Rufus plugged his phone into the shop speakers and selected the playlist.

 _I Get a Kick Out of You_ started playing.

Lucy started absentmindedly humming along with the song. Flynn looked up at her, watching with rapt attention and soft eyes. Wyatt bobbed his head along with the music but otherwise didn’t look up from his essay.

 _Calypso_ came on next.

Wyatt grinned and looked over at Lucy. “Hey, listen.”

“I hear it.”

“Philistines,” Flynn said.

“Don’t make me change all the music on your phone.”

“And how would you even get my phone, Wyatt?”

“I’ll think of something.”

Flynn took out his phone, wiggling it in the air. “Go on. Try and get it from me.”

Wyatt stood up, ready to take on the challenge. Jess and Amy stopped their show and looked over, watching, whispering to each other.

Jiya slept on, because Jiya could sleep through a hurricane.

In a rather impressive jump, Wyatt braced himself on the counter and leapt up to catch the phone that Flynn yanked high over his head. Wyatt practically crashed into Flynn, and Lucy started laughing uncontrollably as Flynn dropped the phone in favor of grabbing Wyatt to keep the both of them from getting concussions from falling to the floor.

Lucy scooped up the phone. “Hmm-hmm, what should I do with this…”

Flynn gave her a mock glare, his mouth twitching like he was trying not to smile, still holding a handful of Wyatt’s shirt at the waist as Wyatt protested that Flynn put him down right this instant.

Oh, fuck it.

Rufus skipped to the end of the playlist.

“There you see her…” Sebastian the crab started singing from the speakers.

Jess burst out into wild laughter, nearly falling off the couch.

Denise stuck her head out of the back room, Dave behind her. “Who put the fucking Disney music on?”

“And you don’t know why but you’re dying to try you wanna, kiss the girl!” Jess and Amy sang at the top of their lungs.

“You’re flat,” Lucy told them.

Jiya slept on.

Rufus groaned. Really, really!? He played the songs they’d talked about the other night, he was ending it with the most obvious _shut up and make out_ song known to man… and they weren’t! Getting it! Through! Their thick skulls!

He gave up.

Rufus changed it all back to the regular music while Flynn finally set Wyatt down and Lucy started playing keep away with the phone. He opened his notebook.

_Conclusion: due to heteronormative structures in place in society, non-heteronormative flirting is difficult to navigate to the point where the fear of misunderstanding platonic affection for romantic and/or sexual desire overcomes all else and subjects retreat to the safety of deniability. Fear of breaking the hetero norm and receiving consequences for it is stronger than desire to initiate a romantic and/or sexual relationship._

It wasn’t the conclusion he’d been hoping to write, but it was the conclusion he was coming to.

Unless his chosen test subjects were just exceptionally thick…

“How does this piece fit into the machine again?” Lucy asked Flynn.

He hastened to show her, even though Rufus had seen her click that piece into place at least a dozen times before.

Flynn put his hand on Lucy’s waist as he helped her put the piece in, Lucy deliberately leaning back into him and brushing her fingers all over his arm.

Rufus buried his face in his hands, just resisting the urge to bang his head against the table.

…exceptionally thick indeed.


	7. Chapter 7

Lucy was closing at the front while Flynn was restocking in the back. Wyatt braced himself on the counter, watching her quietly sing under her breath as she worked. She’d started doing that a lot more—humming and singing—since she’d sung for him and Flynn. It warmed Wyatt’s heart to see her relaxing, showing more of herself, growing in confidence.

There was something about Lucy, even aside from his feelings for her, that made her easy to talk to. If there was anyone besides Jess he’d feel comfortable talking to about this, it would be Lucy. If he couldn’t tell her, then how could he possibly tell anyone else?

“Hey, Lucy?”

She looked up at him, smiling. “Yeah?”

Wyatt glanced around. The Lifeboat was empty, everyone else leaving when it closed—especially when it was a Friday night and most people had better things to do than sit around in a coffee shop, even one that was open until late.

He realized, with a jolt, that this place had become, somehow, home to him. More than his own dorm room. He loved the two big comfy couches in the middle, the haphazard collection of rickety chairs that rumor had it were stolen from various classrooms, the weird insignia over the door that Mason refused to change even though it confused everyone. He loved the scones in the morning that only Jiya was trusted to make, the fact that the Wifi was named ‘The Mothership’ and the password was literally nowisthewinterofourdiscontent because Mason was a Shakespeare nerd and too old to give fucks anymore. He loved that there was a ‘secret menu’ where you could get different alcoholic coffees. He loved that the employees picked the music so you always knew who was working depending on whether it was blues (Mason), ‘70s rock (Jess), K-pop (Amy), early 2000s (Dave), musicals (Jiya), ‘90s hip hop (Rufus), disco (Denise), anything from the ‘20s to the ‘40s (Lucy), or silence because ‘sometimes we need some peace and fucking quiet’ (Flynn).

Dammit, he really loved this shitty hipster coffee joint. Fuck his life.

“Wyatt?” Lucy asked, waiting for his reply.

“Lucy, what if I…” He looked back at her, swallowing. “What if I told you that I had realized that I was… that I’m…” He cleared his throat. C’mon, Logan. “I’m bi,” he said, the words leaving him on a rush of breath.

Lucy looked at him for a long moment. Then she set down the rag she’d been cleaning with. “Do you need a hug?”

Wyatt nodded, his chest and throat feeling tight.

Lucy walked around the counter and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her, breathing her in. Lucy was small, only five foot five, but the strength in her—sometimes he thought she was stronger than the rest of them put together.

“You know you’re safe here,” she told him. “You told that to me, and I—I want you to know that, for you. Denise has Michelle, and I heard her talking about picking out rings. Jess and Amy are stupidly in love and it’s annoying as hell. Jiya told me she’s demi. Flynn and I are bi. You’re safe here.”

Wyatt buried his face into her shoulder. “I know. But I still don’t—it hurts to say it, and I hate that it hurts to say it.”

“It’ll get easier,” Lucy told him. “I promise.” She rubbed his back. “It’ll get easier. And I’ll be right here whenever you need me.”

She pulled back, cupping his face in her hands. “Okay?”

“Okay.” Wyatt released a heavy breath. “I didn’t—it’s such a relief that you know. I know it was stupid but I was scared to tell you.”

“It’s not stupid. But it’s okay. I feel the same.”

Wyatt heard a noise and looked over Lucy’s shoulder.

Flynn had just come through the door and was staring at them with a look on his face that Wyatt couldn’t even begin to describe.

Lucy caught Wyatt’s line of sight and turned, looking at Flynn.

“I’ll be right back,” Flynn said, and then he was walking out the front door.

…oh fuck.

* * *

Flynn tried to remember how to breathe, running a hand through his hair. He was well aware he was walking out into the snow with only a turtleneck and jeans on, but the cold helped. It was like a slap in the face and he needed that.

_I didn’t—it’s such a relief that you know. I know it was stupid but I was scared to tell you._

_It’s not stupid. But it’s okay. I feel the same._

As if the words weren’t damning enough, Wyatt had his arms around Lucy’s waist and she had his face in her hands. He hadn’t seen Lucy’s face but Wyatt was looking at her like she was his whole world.

He’d be happy for them, he would be, he just—he just needed a moment, just a few moments to himself to remember what breathing felt like, to get rid of the stupid tight feeling in his chest—

“Flynn!”

He turned to see Lucy racing after him, shivering in her t-shirt, her dark hair flying out behind her in stark contrast to the white snowy backdrop. “Garcia, wait!”

She practically ran into him, grabbing his arms. “Wait, please, come back inside, please.”

“I’ll be back.”

“No, you—please don’t leave. Don’t leave me.” She looked like she was going to cry. “I don’t know what you thought you saw, but—”

“Lucy, please—”

“I fake not knowing how to work the machine,” Lucy blurted out.

Flynn stared at her. What?

“I know how to work it, I’ve known since the first time you showed me,” she kept talking, her words tumbling one after the other like she was scared if she didn’t get them all out in time that Flynn would walk away. “But I wanted you to keep holding me so I pretended to forget or mess things up.”

A horrible hopefulness started up in Flynn’s chest, like a soft winter dawn.

“I don’t know how Wyatt feels,” Lucy went on. “Not for certain. But I know how I feel and I thought—I thought you both had to know but I love you. I love both of you, I love you so much, and I want—God you have no idea how badly I want—”

Flynn lurched forward and kissed her.

Lucy made a noise of complete relief and kissed him back, her fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to stop her shivering, as he dove into the warmth of her mouth. He loved her, he loved her, he _loved_ her, and she loved him, she loved him _back_.

“Come inside,” Lucy whispered against his lips, nipping at them with her teeth playfully. “Please, Garcia.”

He kissed her one last time, because he could, because he was allowed, because she loved him, his hand tangled in her hair and tenderly cupping the back of her head, his thumb brushing along the line of her jaw. “If you say so.”

“I do, in fact, say so,” Lucy replied, and then she took his hands and led him back into the shop.

* * *

Lucy dragged Flynn back inside. She had no doubt that Wyatt had seen everything, especially judging by that devastated, shell-shocked kind of look Wyatt was sporting.

She wasn’t letting this nonsense stand a moment longer.

She let go of Flynn’s hands and marched up to Wyatt, yanking him in by the lapels of his jacket and planting her mouth on his.

Wyatt stood stock still for a second, clearly in shock, but then practically melted, his lips moving against hers and his hands wrapping tightly around her to press into her back and bring her flush against him. She ran her tongue along the seam of his lips and Wyatt gave a little groan, opening his mouth so that he could slide his tongue against hers, curling it, making her shiver.

She pulled back, inhaling sharply, and looked over at Flynn, who had the kind of expression that she rather imagined concussed people sported.

“I want you both,” she told Wyatt, turning back to look at him. “Okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t as obvious as I thought I was, I’m sorry I hinted instead of being straight with you. But I’m in love with you both. I had a crush on you the first time I met you and my crush on Flynn is part of why I took this job in the first place. I want to be with both of you, if you want.”

Wyatt stared at her with a Christmas-came-early sort of look in his eyes.

Then he looked over at Flynn.

Flynn shrugged as if to say _what do you want from me_. “Since we’re putting everything out there… you probably think I hate you. But it’s—it’s actually the opposite.”

Wyatt stared at Flynn for another moment, then pulled away from Lucy. “The raspberry white hot chocolate,” he said. “That one was my favorite. And the hazelnut latte, of the coffee ones, that was my favorite.” He took a deep breath. “And, um…”

He reached up and undid his scarf and jacket, taking them both off to reveal that underneath… he was wearing the blue button up shirt that Flynn had given him.

Wyatt shrugged. “I know I should’ve returned it, but.”

Flynn crossed the room in just a few strides and grabbed Wyatt, pulling him in and kissing him.

Wyatt grabbed onto Flynn’s shoulders, sinking against him, eagerly kissing back.

Lucy leaned against the counter, thoroughly enjoying the show. Flynn was soft but undeniably in control of the kiss and Wyatt was going along with it happily, shaking and clawing at Flynn like he was already unbearably turned on.

Oh, oh she had so many plans for these two.

The boys pulled back to breathe, and Flynn looked over at her. “Lucy.”

She walked over and they pulled her in, wrapping their arms around her. She kissed Flynn’s jaw and buried her nose into Wyatt’s shoulder, her arms wrapping around their backs, clutching at them. Her boys, at last, they were _her_ boys.

She was never letting go.


	8. Chapter 8

If someone had told Flynn that morning that he’d be making out in the storage room with Wyatt while Lucy was in his lap, he would’ve told them to fuck off.

And yet, somehow, Lucy had dragged both him and Wyatt back there and was currently guiding Flynn’s hand under her clothes while Wyatt, still standing, obligingly let Flynn kiss him until Wyatt was whining and panting desperately against his mouth.

Flynn’s head was swimming with how much he wanted to do and the things he wanted done to him, but first, Lucy looked like she’d just about combust if someone didn’t get her off as soon as humanly possible.

And Flynn could never deny Lucy what she wanted.

Lucy gripped his shoulders as he got his hand under her pants, finding her already slick and rolling her hips against his fingers. Flynn swore. “You’re so wet.”

“Been—been thinking about this since—ah ah _ah_ —since I met you two,” Lucy admitted, crying out softly as Flynn sank a finger into her.

Wyatt groaned and grabbed her, kissing her as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and got his hands under her shirt. Flynn could see Wyatt touching Lucy’s breasts underneath her shirt and he just about lost his mind, getting to watch and touch at the same time sending a spike of lust through him that would’ve made his legs give out if he’d been standing.

Lucy wouldn’t stop kissing them. If it wasn’t his tongue she was sucking into her mouth, it was Wyatt’s. Flynn had no problem touching but also no problem looking, his own pants feeling horribly tight as his cock swelled. Fuck he wanted both of them, wanted to get inside them—

Patience, he told himself, adding a second finger and watching as Lucy shuddered all over. There’d be plenty of time for that. This wasn’t a one time thing. He had all the time he wanted to touch them both in all the ways that he wanted.

Lucy was making little mewling noises as he rubbed at her clit, her hips thrusting frantically down onto his fingers. Wyatt was sucking an impressive hickey into her neck and she was gripping onto his arms, her eyes closed and face flushed and Flynn honestly didn’t think he’d ever seen anything more beautiful in his life.

He curled his fingers, searching until he found the angle that had Lucy jerking like she’d been given an electric shock, and then he kept at it until she was shuddering and biting down hard on her lip to try and keep the noises down, slumping back against Wyatt.

Flynn grabbed a stack of napkins, passing some to Lucy and using the rest to clean his hand off. Lucy pushed Wyatt back, then grabbed Flynn’s knees…

…and slid down to the floor, pushing his legs apart.

Oh fuck.

Lucy winked at him, undoing his pants and purring in the back of her throat when she took his cock out.

Oh he was going to die now, wasn’t he?

Wyatt made a choking noise and Flynn smirked up at him. Well, he might die, but he could at least take someone with him.

“Come here,” he said, and to his shock and pleasure, Wyatt obeyed.

Flynn put a hand on Lucy’s head to keep her back as he stood up, giving himself a better angle to get his hand down Wyatt’s pants.

Lucy smiled at Flynn in approval, and then worked her tongue underneath his foreskin, making him choke on his own spit. She was just going to town, no hesitation, and he just about lost his mind.

Wyatt, he had to take care of Wyatt too. He kissed him, loving the way Wyatt would be so eager and willing. “We’re going to show you everything,” Flynn promised him, stroking Wyatt slowly, carefully, searching his face to see where to adjust, how just to touch him to make him lose his mind.

“I want—I don’t even know what I want,” Wyatt admitted. “I just—I want so badly.”

“We’ll take care of you,” Flynn assured him. Lucy sank down further onto his cock and Flynn groaned, forcing himself to keep still. The temptation to thrust up into her was so goddamn strong. He tangled his free hand in her hair as she kept at it, no mercy in her today, apparently.

Wyatt clung to him, tucking his face into the crook of Flynn’s neck and thrusting in short, desperate movements into his hand. “You like this?” Flynn asked, twisting his wrist. “Is this what you want, hmm?”

“Y-yes,” Wyatt choked out, and then it was all he could say, just a quiet litany of “yes, yes, yes,” chanted in hot puffs of breath against his skin.

Flynn slumped back against the shelves, a box of coffee filters digging into his back as he tried to keep focused. He tightened his hold on Wyatt’s cock, and then Lucy’s mouth was gone from him and he looked down in time to see her swirl her tongue around the head of Wyatt’s cock and Wyatt came with a surprised groan, his knees buckling.

Flynn almost laughed at the dazed look in Wyatt’s eyes as he pulled back to look down at himself, as if his body had betrayed him by coming so soon, but then Lucy put her mouth back on Flynn’s cock and Flynn just about lost all sense of place and time. She braced her hands on Flynn’s hips and went down as far as she could. Flynn could see her eyes watering but she kept bobbing up and down, determined to yank him over the edge.

It was like being hit by a goddamn tsunami.

“I think you actually sucked my brains out,” he croaked as Lucy pulled back, grabbing one of the stacks of water bottles and tearing open the plastic to grab a bottle and drink.

“Thank you, we Preston girls pride ourselves on our skill sets.” Lucy winked up at him, then stood, handing another bottle to Wyatt and one to Flynn.

There came the sound of voices outside. “Guys?” It was Rufus. “Anyone?”

“They wouldn’t have just left all the lights on like this,” said Jiya. “Maybe something’s wrong.”

“They must’ve walked by and seen the place was empty,” Wyatt said in horror.

“Don’t come in!” Lucy yelled.

There was a very, very painful pause.

“…I’m going to go drink bleach,” Rufus announced. “It was nice knowing all of you.”

“Well hey,” Jiya said, “at least we can wipe the board clean now.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Flynn yelled. What board? The incident board? Wasn’t that for calculating how long it’d been since an injury?

“Oh hey,” Rufus then said, in a surprised tone of voice. “It’s almost Christmas break.”

“And?” Jiya replied.

“It means Dave actually fucking won.”

“Won _what_?” Flynn demanded.

“Put your damn pants on and maybe you’ll find out,” Rufus shouted back.

Lucy collapsed against the boys in a fit of giggles. Flynn smiled down at her, knowing he looked besotted and not caring one bit.

“How about we close up shop and take this back to a proper room?” he suggested.

“…your room?” Wyatt asked, his eyes hopeful.

Flynn reached out, his fingers brushing Wyatt’s cheek, the curve of his ear, through his hair. “And you can stay as long as you want.”

Wyatt and Lucy’s lit up faces were all the response he needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel contractually obligated to point out—please don’t do what Lucy did re: cocksucking unless you know both guys are clean. Just FYI. This is fanfic smut and therefore a certain level of fantasy goes on here so I don’t usually go into the safe sex aspect of it all but please, STD checks and condoms, kids. Especially when multiple partners are involved.


	9. Chapter 9

Lucy woke up Christmas morning to Wyatt’s arm draped over her waist, his nose tucked into the back of her neck, and Flynn sitting up in bed reading Kant because Flynn was the kind of guy who read philosophy on his school break.

He noticed her stirring and smiled down at her. “Good morning.”

“Good morning. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

She turned and gently stroked her fingertips across Wyatt’s cheek to wake him up. His face twitched and he opened his eyes, smiling lazily at her. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” She kissed the tip of his nose.

God, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this happy. The past couple of weeks had been a blur of cuddles, lazy dates, and sex in just about every position they could think of.

She’d sent Amy off to enjoy Christmas with Jess, hugging her tightly and reminding her to Skype the day of. She’d trusted Jess to hide her present to Amy—tickets to see the Pentatonix in concert, something Lucy had been saving up to get her for months—and she couldn’t wait for her sister’s excited squealing as she opened the present, even if it was over a video call.

Finals had been hell, as always—Flynn hadn’t slept for about three days straight and made fifteen people cry while working the cash register, which Jiya declared a record—but then campus had quieted down and now… now it was like they were the only three people in the world.

Mom hadn’t called. Lucy was surprised by how little she minded.

They’d gone ice skating—something Wyatt was great at and she and Flynn were awful at—and had taken a walk into the nice part of town to look at all the rich people’s fancy houses with their fancy Christmas decorations. They’d stopped by every other coffeeshop in town and had decided that The Lifeboat was definitely the best one. They’d eaten a crap ton of takeout and had watched anything that even remotely could be considered a Christmas movie.

And now it was the day of.

“Merry Christmas,” Flynn said to Wyatt, reaching over to ruffle his hair.

“Merry Christmas,” Wyatt replied, his voice rough from sleep. “I don’t suppose you got me a present besides your dick.”

“According to you last night that’s a pretty damn good present.”

Lucy laughed. The boys were never going to stop bantering, but now it was softened, and peppered in with these almost annoyed expressions of affection, like neither of them could honestly believe that they were so stupidly in love with the other one.

“I got you both presents,” she told them, reaching under the bed where she’d hidden them. She liked Flynn’s room and was seriously considering never moving out.

She passed one present to Wyatt and one to Flynn.

Wyatt opened his and immediately flushed red. “I hate you.”

“Aww, you don’t like it?”

Wyatt held up the very pretty green collar she’d gotten him. “I said _maybe_.”

“You also climaxed when I suggested the idea, so…” She pecked him on the cheek. “Besides, the green brings out your eyes.”

Flynn opened his, revealing a _John Denver and the Muppets_ Christmas CD. “Lucy this better be a joke.”

“Open it.”

Inside the case she’d put a gift card to Flynn’s favorite bookstore.

“Okay, now my presents look lame,” Wyatt said, getting up and going over to the closet where he’d apparently hidden his.

He’d wrapped their presents in the Sunday funnies. Lucy tore open hers with abandon, revealing a history book on Bonnie and Clyde she’d had her eye on that she hadn’t even realized Wyatt had noticed her looking at when they’d stopped by the bookstore.

Flynn opened his and laughed, holding it up. It was a shirt that said _My people skills are fine. It’s my tolerance to idiots that needs work._

Lucy laughed as well, then hugged Wyatt. “Thank you, sweetheart, it’s perfect.”

Flynn, who had been gloriously bare chested, put the shirt on and then got up and opened—the oven?

“You hid our presents in the oven?” Lucy asked.

“Hey, I didn’t know if you were the snooping type,” Flynn replied, tossing them their gifts.

Wyatt opened his and immediately said, “You fucker.”

Lucy looked.

It was a hardback copy of _Pride & Prejudice_.

Flynn just grinned at him. “Open it up.”

While Wyatt opened the book, Lucy opened her present. It was small, and she had no guess as to what it would be…

Oh.

A pair of gold dangling earrings stared back up at her. “Flynn, please don’t tell me you spent a ton of—”

“They were my mom’s,” he assured her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “I thought they’d go with your locket.”

Lucy always wore her gold locket, one that had a picture of Amy in it. She felt herself blushing and turned her head into Flynn. He brushed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s perfect,” she told him. Giving him something from his family like that… she knew it had to mean a lot.

She looked over at Wyatt, who was staring down gobsmacked at what Flynn had written on the inside of the book cover.

_Wyatt,_

_I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun._

“You sap,” Lucy whispered.

Wyatt set the book carefully aside and then moved over Lucy’s lap to wrap a hand around the back of Flynn’s neck and kiss him. In the past couple of weeks Wyatt’s kisses had gone from overeager, desperate, to more comfortable and assured. He still got turned on crazily easily, but it was like he was settling a little—realizing that Flynn and Lucy weren’t going to disappear on him.

Wyatt kissed her next, and then Flynn kissed her, and that was around the time they shoved the presents aside so that Flynn could eat her out until she was begging for him to let her come, straining against Wyatt’s hold on her wrists, and then Flynn could fuck Wyatt while she kissed the both of them all over, eagerly watching the two of them fall apart.

It was only after they all collapsed for a few minutes that they realized they should probably get breakfast.

Lucy did her video call with Amy (with a guest appearance by Jess) while Flynn made French toast and Wyatt threw the sheets in the laundry.

“How is it out there?” she asked. “Fun?”

“Fantastic,” Amy enthused.

Wyatt walked over and Jess waved at him. “My mom and dad say hi!”

“Hi,” Wyatt replied, waving.

“I’m glad I came here,” Amy said. “It would’ve sucked just me and Mom and she would’ve been all pissy about you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, hey, it’s about time you stood up to her. And if she wants to be all weird about this thing then that’s her problem, not yours.”

“I’m glad you’re happy.”

Amy grinned at her. “I’m glad you’re happy too. How’re the boys treating you? Being good, I hope?”

“Oh, very good.” Lucy looked up and caught Flynn’s eye, grinning at him. Flynn grinned right back.

They all ate in their pajamas, then took a shower together, which quickly derailed from getting clean into ‘just how do we have sex without slipping on the tile’.

The answer, by the way, was ‘very carefully’.

After that Lucy actually wanted to go outside, so they did, and pelted one another with snowballs. Then it was back inside for hot chocolate.

“Sorry it’s not fancy,” Flynn teased Wyatt as he stirred the pot on the stove.

“Hardy har har.”

Lucy wrapped her arms around Flynn from behind, kissing the middle of his back. “Thank you.”

“For making you coco?”

“For letting us stay with you. For giving us a home.”

Flynn turned around, wrapping his arm around her. “Of course. I’d do it again.”

Wyatt got out mugs—he and Lucy knew their way around Flynn’s dorm almost better than they knew their own by now—and Flynn added whipped cream to Lucy’s because she was a fiend for it.

They all sat back down in front of the TV. Wyatt took a sip. “You liar, you put something in this!”

“I might have stolen the raspberry flavoring from The Lifeboat.”

Wyatt nudged Flynn’s feet with his own. “You’re the worst.”

“You love me for it.”

“Yeah.” Wyatt’s cheeks were pink. “Yeah, I do.”

Flynn gently elbowed her. “So what do you think, Lucy? Good Christmas?”

He was trying for casual, but she could hear the thread of genuine concern in his voice. Both men, she knew, felt a lot of pressure to make this nice for her, even though she hadn’t put that pressure on them herself. Just being with them at all was perfect.

“Best Christmas since my dad died,” she told him, taking his hand.

“Best Christmas ever,” Wyatt admitted.

Lucy crawled into Wyatt’s lap. “Been a couple hours since I sat here,” she explained.

Flynn snapped a picture on his phone. “Oh, that’s a good one.” He showed it to them.

“Could we manage a selfie?” she asked.

“With arms like that, he better be able to manage a selfie,” Wyatt muttered.

“I remember distinctly that you were far from complaining about my arms when I could lift you in the shower.”

They rearranged themselves, Wyatt scrunched next to Flynn with Lucy on their laps, her head resting on Flynn’s other shoulder. Flynn managed to get the angle just right. “Okay, pretend you like each other.”

Lucy laughed, so her smile came out big and wide in the photo.

“Damn, we make a good looking couple,” Wyatt said. He paused. “Throuple?”

“Never say that again,” Flynn replied.

“Threesome?”

“That sounds like it’s a one time sex thing,” Lucy said.

“Whatever. We look good.”

“You should post it,” Lucy said. Then she bit her lip. She didn’t know if Wyatt and Flynn would be okay with going public just yet. Their friends knew, of course, and she suspected quite a few people who went to the coffee shop regularly had their own opinions, but Flynn was an extremely private person and Wyatt hadn’t even come out to anyone really.

Flynn looked at Wyatt. “If you want,” Wyatt said, shrugging. His pink cheeks gave him away, though.

Flynn kissed him on the temple. “I want.”

He posted it on Instagram with the caption, _Christmas with resident angel @lucylawful and my favorite asshole @bondboy._

“I can’t believe you gave yourself that Instagram name and didn’t realize you were bi,” Lucy laughed at Wyatt.

“Hey, c’mon, it could’ve been hero worship.”

“Suuuuuure.”

The photo got an insane amount of likes and comments, many of them of the ‘I fucking _knew it_ ’ or ‘about time’ variety.

Lucy took the phone away from Flynn and chucked it aside, cuddling into him and reaching over to hold Wyatt’s hand. They just sat and breathed together for a while, soaking up the peace and quiet and each other.

Best Christmas, definitely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: That shirt that Wyatt gets Flynn actually exists: https://www.etsy.com/listing/257700216/my-people-skills-are-fine-its-my?gpla=1&gao=1&utm_campaign=shopping_us_RoadkillTees_sfc_osa&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_custom1=0&utm_content=10626952&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp8utyfuL3wIVnIizCh17QQiaEAYYBiABEgJ6i_D_BwE


	10. Chapter 10

When they first entered The Lifeboat after Christmas break, Rufus gave a groan of relief. “Thank God.”

Lucy looked at Flynn, then at Wyatt. She was currently in the middle, holding each of their hands while the two men bickered over whether _Persuasion_ was Austen’s most mature and therefore best work (Flynn) or if the chemistry and wit in _Pride & Prejudice_ made it the best (Wyatt).

“What, that Flynn converted Wyatt to Austen?” she asked.

“No, that you three didn’t break up over the break, we were all a little worried about that.”

“You what?” Flynn snapped, catching the tail end of that.

“You three are explosive personalities,” Rufus shrugged.

Dave sauntered by, looking smug. Rufus flipped him off.

“I feel like I missed something,” Lucy said slowly.

“Dave bet you three would get together before Christmas break. Most of us didn’t agree. He’s now a good couple hundred dollars richer.”

“Hey!” Wyatt said, hurrying after Dave. “You owe us a cut of that!”

“How was your break?” Lucy asked.

“Great, we had a good time, nice and relaxing. You?”

“Great, we had a good time, nice and sexy.” Lucy grinned at him.

Rufus held up a hand. “I don’t want to know.” Then his eyes lit up. “Oh! I almost forgot!”

He ducked down and then reappeared a moment later with a notebook. “This is for you guys. Thanks for helping me get top marks.”

“…on what?” Lucy asked, taking the notebook and flipping through it.

There were notes in there like:

_The Lucy is a fan of the touch method, and will encourage and initiate physical contact. Interesting contrast since verbal affirmation seems to be her love language. However, the Lucy is also a bisexual creature, and therefore probably has come to not rely on verbal terms of affection as a way of gaging romantic interest, since women are notoriously verbally affectionate with one another even when only platonic affection is meant._

“Rufus,” she said slowly, “did you turn us into a sociology project?”

“On non-heteronormative flirting, yes,” Rufus replied. “Glad you guys gave the project a happy ending, that would’ve been a real downer to hand in if you all were still stuck in that mutual pining rut.”

“Rufus,” Flynn said, his voice dangerously calm and even, “I’m going to murder you.”

“Nobody give him a sharp object.”

“Like that’s the only way I’d be able to kill you.”

Wyatt walked back over. “Hey, Rufus.” He looked at his partners. “Did you guys order?”

“No,” Lucy said. “Wait, how many people were in on this betting thing?”

“Oh, the whole damn campus,” Rufus said. “There was a Facebook group and everything.”

“I’m going to kill you _slowly_.”

“I’ll have a salted caramel hot chocolate,” Lucy said quickly.

“He’ll have a cappuccino,” Wyatt said, indicating Flynn. “And I’ll take a hazelnut latte.”

Rufus stopped punching stuff in at that last part. “Did you just order something other than a black coffee?”

“Yeah, and?” Wyatt asked, on the defensive.

Rufus shrugged. “Just about time, man. Flynn was giving you coffees half off sometimes.”

Flynn cleared his throat, uncomfortable. Wyatt grinned at him. “Aw, babe, did you have a crush on me?”

“We’re dating, and how dare you quote _Parks and Rec_ against me.”

Lucy paid and dragged them over to a table. She hoped that everyone around them realized that now that they were dating, the Flynn and Wyatt bantering wasn’t about to get any better. If anything, it would get even worse.

Personally, she couldn’t wait. Not just for that but for everything, and for everything that came after that, and after that, and after that.

Their feet all tangled under the table, Wyatt pressed into her side, Flynn’s hand resting over hers. Outside she could see Amy and Jess making their way through the snow, and Jiya was chatting with Denise about something as they emerged from the back room.

She grinned. This next semester was going to be great.


End file.
